The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mr. Mele Kyari, on Thursday hinted that the company would commence drilling for crude oil in Nasarawa State’s Keana oil field effective from March 21 this year.
Kyari, who made this disclosure during a meeting he held with the state Governor, Engr. Abdullahi Sule, in Lafia, the state capital, recalled that the recent exploratory activities conducted on the field indicated that there was a huge deposit of crude oil in the state and the company was ready to start the drilling operations of the hydrocarbon resources.
The NNPCL’s GCEO had on Friday, January 13 during an official visit by the state governor to the NNPC Towers in Abuja, hinted that exploratory activities in the Nasarawa Keana oil field would start before the end of the first quarter this year.
He explained: “This work must be done very fast because the whole world is walking away from fossil fuels due to the energy transition, the earlier you go to market, the better for you. Otherwise, 10 years from now, no one will agree to put money in the petroleum business unless it comes from your cash flow.”
Kyari’s timeline for the exploratory activities on the field, however, did not align with the Governor Sule’s projection in an earlier statement issued in December last year, which indicated that oil production in the field would start by 2026 or 2027.
Earlier, precisely in April last year, a team from the NNPC started the process of drilling an enhanced well for the production of oil in the state.
Later, the then state-owned oil corporation indicated that seismic acquisition for Oil Prospecting License (OPL) 813A, Keana West in Nasarawa state, had been conducted and security assessment also completed. Subsequently, the NNPC obtained 3D seismic data in Keana and also reported that the final deliverables had been received preparatory to the oil exploratory activities.
In addition to the oil field in Keana Local Government area, the state governor had last year also announced that oil and gas had been discovered in commercial quantities in the Agwatashi and Obi Local Government areas of the state.
